Question

Locate an evidence-based public health program. Research the program then explain what elements of the program stand out to you and why. Finally, using the “Public Health Programs Planning Steps,” explain what you think might be the most challenging step in planning this program and why.

Answer

Healthcare

The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPP) provides evidence-based public health programs that help prevent teen pregnancy in the United States (Farb, 2015). It consists of a number of initiatives that have been evaluated and found to be effective when it comes to matters relating to the reduction of teen pregnancy and associated sexual risk behaviors. The proven evidence-based programs are then implemented and administered under the auspices of the Office of Adolescent Health (OAH).

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The OAH works together with the Division of Reproductive Health of the Centers for Disease Control and the Family and Youth Services Bureau among other entities to make the TPP programs more effective (Farb, 2015). What is most striking to me is the idea of a web of programs under one umbrella, that is, the TPP. Instead of it being just one program that is specific to the task at hand, the TPP provides an opportunity for different individuals to come up with as many innovative programs as they can as long as they work towards the aforementioned central goal.

According to the Public Health Program, there are six steps to program planning and evaluation: defining the stakeholders, describing the program, finding an evaluation design, gathering evidence, drawing conclusions and presenting findings (McKenxie et al., 2016). Out of these steps, I think that defining the stakeholders might be the most challenging step to the planning of the TPP programs. This is because it takes a lot of efforts to be able to convince stakeholders to invest in a program they are not entirely sure will work out. Moreover, the stakeholders may have different views on how best the program should be implemented, and this might cause internal conflicts.

References

Farb, A. (2015). Findings and Implications from the HHS Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. In 2015 Fall Conference: The Golden Age of Evidence-Based Policy. Appam.

McKenzie, J. F., Neiger, B. L., & Thackeray, R. (2016). Planning, implementing & evaluating health promotion programs: A primer. London: Pearson.